Marcus hinted at his current status. "For me to be honored by Lord & Taylor — a style house — is, well...I'm a hardware guy."

He complimented Baker on NRDC's purchase of L&T, saying, "I'm a merchant. I love stores. And retailing is a wonderful business. If you please the customer, it can be very exciting — and you can make a lot of money at it."

But he couldn't hide his excitement about the windows, which he was anxious to see throughout dinner. "I hope this helps the store's business. I know it will do something good for the aquarium," Marcus said. "New Yorkers are blasé — I can say this, I'm from here. Maybe this will excite several people to get on a plane to come down to Atlanta to see the aquarium."

BLUE PERIOD: Designer Paloma Picasso is hosting an exclusive breakfast at Tiffany's Fifth Avenue flagship on Tuesday morning to launch her newest collection called Crown of Hearts. Picasso, who has refrained from designing watches for Tiffany & Co. for some time, will bow a limited edition timepiece in addition to jewelry. The Lake Geneva, Switzerland-based designer is also apparently an aficionado of stones. She has incorporated several stones the company has never used before in its wares, including black tourmaline and praseolite.